COCO

Last summer we lost our beloved dog, Coco.  She had been a rescue that I picked up at an animal adoption.  I remember calling my husband and saying, "What if I brought home a beautiful blonde?" He said, "No way."  I brought her home anyway.  She was a mixed breed dog, Chow Chow and Golden Retriever.  Small in stature and absolutely gorgeous. She loved to be outside and actually preferred it to being inside.  I would have to actually bribe her to come inside during extreme heat or cold.  She wanted to protect us.   She loved camping and as soon as we'd start the motorhome, she was always the first one in.    This picture shows her on one of her first camping trips.   

She didn't come without problems.  We spent the first year really having to watch our tone of speech.  If my husband ever raised his voice, she was cowering under the table even if it wasn't directed towards her.  

We called her Momma.  She was that. She had a maternal instinct rivaling that of human mothers.  Once when we were camping, Alex was in a terrible accident and had to go to the hospital via ambulance.   We were with friends and decided to leave Annika and Coco with them.   Annika was sound asleep on the bed of the motorhome, I think she was two.  Coco went in and laid down in the hall and wouldn't let anyone in to Annika.  She wasn't aggressive, but protective.  After Annika woke up, she only allowed our friends to change Annika's diaper.  After that she was always in the middle.    She was like that until her final moments.  My kids were her kids.  

She was a loyal companion to our cat, Chicken.   Chicken and Coco would play together.  Once Chicken brought a LIVE mouse into the backyard just so they could play chase the mouse!  

Last summer, she began to have seizures, could barely walk, wouldn't eat, and was messing in the house.  I knew what was going to happen.  I didn't want to face the news.  The kids and I took her to the vet where he said, "It's time."   He suggested we take her home for some extra loving and bring her back at the end of the day.   These photos are deeply personal and emotional as they were taken just hours before she was put to sleep.  Annika and I stayed with her until the very end. 


She's a feisty, social cat, always has been.  We adore her so does everyone that walks in our house.  She quickly won over the heart of my husband and now she's been branded, "His cat."  She adores the children, on her terms of course.

After Coco died, Chicken went into a deep depression.  She stopped hunting (her favorite pasttime) and would sit there at the back door calling for her friend.  It was heartbreaking.   We were in the middle of planning a move and didn't want to bring another pet into our lives until we knew where we'd be.  We did know that we'd have to do something.

DOTTIE

Last October, we adopted Dottie.  She's another rescue.    She was rescued literally moments before she was scheduled to be put down.   I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that to our beautiful creature. 

She's a mixed breed and we still have arguments over her "breed".Today the vet tech said, "She a Dal/Shar Pei mix."  The vet said, "She's a Dane/Shar Pei mix."   Then we have the people at the park that run away screaming, "OMG, she's a Pit!!"  Whatever she is, everything says she's beautiful.


She's strong willed, strong, and playful.  She's sweet too.  She ADORES car rides and almost everyday I take her for a ride to pick up my son from school.   She chases poor Chicken non-stop.  They aren't friends yet...hopefully one day.  Dottie is full of antics as well.  

So there you have it.  A glimpse into our world of pets. 

I'm still in shock. Week 26 is finished. 1/2 a year of recording our family life. This is amazing and wonderful. Last week I posted that our life was entirely sports right now, it still is. Our daughter's team is headed to a Junior Olympics games in San Diego. We are so proud of her team. They've worked their tails off.

For this week, I mostly used my new Scrapbook Circle kit, with a dash of Cocoa Daisy, and a sprinkle of my own stash. I'm absolutely in LOVE with my new Treasure Thickers from the Dear Lizzy collection. Seriously, chunky giltter over printed chipboard? OMG, noms...

I do apologize for the randomness of the pictures, I'm blogging from the iPad.

My kids LOVE sports. I was never into sports too much as a kid. I played a season of baseball. I danced and did gymnastics from Junior high until college. It was all recreational though. My son lives and breathes football and my daughter is a softball junkie. For the past few weeks, my daughter has been playing on an All-Star team. We've traveled all over for her tournaments. Which means, a lot of time away from home. I don't know how people stay in hotels every week. It's just plain exhausting. Most of the time we preplan our meals to help reduce our spending. We usually pack a few giant ice chests with food. This works out well since we spend most of our time at parks. Even planning the meals is exhausting. Last weekend I was reminded of why I do it though. it's sooooo expensive eating out. Last weekend I decided to not pack an ice chest and seriously, our expenses for the weekend tripled. We did have a great time though.

Last week's PL consists mostly of sports since that is what we did. I used a combination of Cocoa Daisy & Scrapbook Circle to complete my spread.

I've been involved in scrapbooking for at least 20 years and I've had the pleasure of seeing the industry grow and evolve into what it is today.  Today I was working on a layout when a few things dawned on me.

1.) It's more artistic than it ever was.  Imagine putting gesso and paint on a page then...THE HORRORS!! The CM police would be having a witch hunt on your lawn and they'd for sure revoke your scrap card.
  
2.) Perfection is not necessary.  Back in the day, it was magic matters, and perfect layers...everything lined up neat and tidy.  Now imperfection is almost the norm.  We mess up and say, "It's all good, I'll work with it."
3.) Hoarding.  I used to  still do own every color, every pattern in just about every paper ever made.  I had to have multiple sheets of it too in case I ran out during a very important project.  Now I buy ONE sheet if I love it.  If I need to use it again, I order a new one!!!   I'm going through my old stash and finally purging my ginghams, plaids, dots, and other patterns from days long past.  It feels great too!

4.) Stickers.  Are. Freakin. Amazing.

5.) Seriously, stickers today are amazing. The textures, the depth, the color, the paper they are on.  I could go on and on and on and on.  I love the stickers today.

6.) Thickers. 'Nuff said. I may or may not have 38 UNIQUE designs of Thickers.  I may or may not have duplicates of some of my favorites.  ^^See post regarding hoarding.








I leave you with this tiny glimpse into my studio. :)

A few months ago I had the privilege to create this lil' masterpiece.

The background is essentially 6 little chipboard cards, covered with ephemera, lightly gessoed and then painted with watercolors.    All the gnomes and mushrooms are clip art that I printed multiple times and layered to create a three dimensional look.   I filled the tiny bottles with glitter and glue the stopper on.  For the bottle laying down, I added glue to the mix so that it wouldn't spill all over. I also added glossy accents to a few of the gnomes. 

As usual I played around with kits from Cocoa Daisy, Studio Calico, and Scrapbook Circle.  I will usually start with my weekly card, determine which colors I'm going to use for my spread and go from there.   I cut down my 12x12 papers into 4x12 strips.  I begin placing my photos and then placing the paper and embellishments in a pleasing manner.  I'm not a huge journaler, I never have been.  If needed, I'll usually add hidden journaling.

I think my favorite embellishments are my sewing machine and my Dymo labeler.  I use them on EVERYTHING.

For credits, see my post HERE.

Now for some detail shots.